Original Publish Date » April 10 , 2025
Last Updated » 2 weeks

Trump’s Tariff War

  • US markets tumbled again as investors assessed the worsening trade war with China, and Trump clarified that he had raised tariffs on Chinese goods by a total of 145% since taking office. On Wednesday, the president said he was increasing the import tax on China to 125%. Clearly, even the White House doesn’t know what’s happening inside the White House.

The World Knows Trump Is Stupid, Erratic, and Weak (Paul Krugman)

‘Uncertainty’ created by Trump will ‘detrimentally’ affect US and world economy (France 24)

  • Richard Portes, Professor of Economics at London Business School

Trump reverses course on some tariffs but won’t change duties on Canada

  • Trump partially reversed course Wednesday on the global trade war he started following days of tanking global markets — but he’s not offering any changes to the tariffs hitting Canada.
    • The Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that Canada and Mexico were included in the 10% universal levy. The White House later stated that the tariffs on Canada remained unchanged.
    • The US’ 25% import taxes on goods it imports from Mexico and Canada that are not covered under the CUSMA / USMCA trade pact remains in effect
  • Trump posted that China had shown a “lack of respect” and announced he’s increasing tariffs on Chinese imports to 125%, effective immediately. (The Canadian Press)

The European Union is pausing its retaliatory tariffs on US imports for 90 days, after Trump abruptly backed down on his punishing global levies

  • The European Union will pause its first countermeasures against U.S. tariffs after President Donald Trump temporarily lowered the hefty duties he had just imposed on dozens of countries, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday.  (The Canadian Press / AP / Axios)

The United States and China are locked in a faceoff over tariffs. No one wants to blink first (AP)

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the media was responsible for tanking global markets and leaving tens of millions of everyday Americans fearing for their jobs – not Donald Trump’s tariffs.

  • Leavitt, standing alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, tore into the media for ‘missing the art of the deal’ by talking down how his unprecedented tariff plan would play out.
  • You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here. You tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China, when in fact we’ve seen the opposite effect.’ (Daily Mail)
  • Thoughts » Loosing ground to China continues to be what worries this administration and may be the reason they pulled back on the tariffs.

Also

A growing number of Tesla owners are putting their used vehicles up for sale (TechCrunch)

Everyone who is in the US illegally must register with the federal government (AP)

The battle to control the US measles outbreak is being hindered by confusion over health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s response. RFK Jr. has a long history of advocating against vaccines. Now he’s pro vaccine? Circus town. (Reuters)